


Sahara

by EtherealElven



Category: Baekyeol - Fandom, Byun Baekhyun - Fandom, Chanbaek - Fandom, EXO, Junmyeon - Fandom, Kim Jongdae - Fandom, Park Chanyeol - Fandom, Suho - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 17:24:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8676208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtherealElven/pseuds/EtherealElven
Summary: You said I would always be aloneAnd it’s the life that I choseYou said I could never be happy with anyoneBut I found love-	Bear’s Den, Sahara





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys!!! i posted this a while ago but then i had exams for several months, which isn't fun!! so here is the start of Sahara edited and re-uploaded and updates should be pretty consistent these next few months so please enjoy!!

You said I would always be alone

And it’s the life that I chose

 You said I could never be happy with anyone

But I found love

  * Bear’s Den, Sahara



 

Baekhyun wouldn’t describe himself as someone who was broken. Sure he had seen a lot of things in his past, but he wasn’t a shell of a person. Maybe he wasn’t happy as such, elated, excited or high on life, but he was content. Wizened beyond his years the uni student at the age of 22 would consider himself as someone who knew a bit about life, not that he was bragging or anything. Years spent quietly observing others as they went about their lives, days spent with his head in a book surrounded by another world, learning to view things through an artist’s eye and pick up every tiny detail, the secret was to not expect anything and just take things as they came. Once you thought you had it figured out you were bound to trip and fall.  He most content surrounded by the people at the old folk’s home he volunteered at. They weren’t bitter, they accepted life as it came, wise in both years and thoughts their presence was calming to him, a relaxing stillness, unrushed in the crazyness of his life.

Baekhyun sighed as a banging noise filled his ears, muffled yells coming from the other side of the door. “Baekhyun I know you’re in there” he heard and groaned, it seemed that every time Jongdae came around he only got louder and louder. Resigned to his fate he picked himself off the window seat he was sitting on in his musings and meandered his way over to the front door of his apartment. If Jongdae was going to bother him on one of his rare days off, then the least he could do to make himself feel better was to keep him waiting.

“Wassup baek” Jongdae said quietly as he opened the door, being careful to mind his ears. Baekhyun let out a huff of affection, Jongdae one of his closest friends, was the only one that knew of his past and respected his closet hidden introvertness, he appreciated his attempts to calm down his flamboyant personality when he was alone with him and let Baekhyun take a break.

“Come get coffee with me” He exclaimed suddenly, breaking Baekhyun out of his daze. “what? No” He retorted back a bit surprised, Jongdae while friendly wasn’t the type who needed someone to hold his hand every time he left the house and he was honestly a bit surprised he asked, even though he only lived down the hall.

“Pleeeeaaaseee, I have a ten-page report due tomorrow and I’m only half way through”

“that’s your fault for majoring in engineering then you idiot” He replied fondly, hitting him over the head as he went to grab his coat, honestly he wouldn’t mind a coffee at this hour, regardless of his friend’s strange behavior. Jongdae was an engineer major, by request of his parents who didn’t think his minor of voice lessons would get him anywhere. Jongdae didn’t mind though, his love for maths and physics combined with his psychotic streak left him the perfect man for the job of crazy genius engineer and despite his bad work ethics he was topping all of his classes.`

He slid the key card in the lock and started following him down the stairs, dreaming of a Starbucks macchiato with his name on it. “So how’s your week being so far? yanno apart from all of the crazy assignments due?”

Baekhyun groaned, he was an art major. Probably not the most well-paid of career choices, but through sleepless nights of hard work and tireless promoting by his high school teacher who was convinced he was the next Picasso, he had managed to secure himself a scholarship with a well-known publishing company and had already secured himself a job as a book cover and visuals designer there when he graduated. His parents both baffled and surprised had no reason to protest as he took off half way across the country to Seoul in order to study along with Jongdae who’s well off parents insisted on getting only the best education for their darling angel.

“For fucks sake Baekhyun! What’s your problem today? Get your head out of your ass and stop daydreaming, or do I have to push you into traffic for you to get out of your stupid head”

Baekhyun sighed, speaking of said darling angel. He picked up his pace, jogging to catch up, he couldn’t be bothered dealing with Jongdae’s whining today and the sooner he got that coffee the better.

 

 __________________________________________________________________________________________

They arrived at the coffee shop just a few minutes after it opened but already the quaint store was buzzing quietly with the sound of people.

“This is cute” he said to Jongdae who looked around appreciatively

“yeah it is. I’ve been here a few times and I really like it”

It was true. The ambience of the café was very relaxing. The alternative music and the vines covering the brick wall behind the counter really brought back the memories from his hipster days as a teenager when he insisted that dying his hair pink was the only way to get a date.

Approaching the counter, he was served by a very owlish looking man. He didn’t know if he would call him attractive, but he definitely caught his eye, different he thought.

“Hi my name is Minseok” the man greeted him brightly, “what would you like today?”

“one caramel macchiato and a latte please” spoke Jongdae

“I’m paying today” he said winking gaudily”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at his antics and went to find a seat in the corner of the room where he could observe. Jongdae may be full of shit but at least he got a free coffee.

After a few minutes he walked over to the table, placing his latte in front of him. Baekhyun thanked him before taking a sip and sighing, this was what he lived for.

“So” Jongdae exclaimed looking at him intently

Baekhyun said nothing

“sooo what?” he replied, confused

“have you got laid recently?”

Baekhyun spit out his coffee, choking a little

“um no” he replied shooting glares at him as he dabbed at his t-shirt, now supporting a golf ball sized coffee stain.

Jongdae said watched him, his face crinkled up in a display of exasperation

“we have talked about this before” he said sighing once more, it seemed that’s all he did these days.

“I have no desire to be in a relationship and I have no desire to “get laid” as you so eloquently put it, I am by myself and that’s how it will always be, I have accepted that and I am happy”

Pouting he continued to dab at his t-shirt.

“I seemed to have lost most of my coffee” he mumbled “The least you can do is buy me another one.”

 

One coffee later and a disgruntled Jongdae they finally got to business.

“so why did you pull me down here? Baekhyun asked

“well we have that vocal assessment coming up and we need to work with the music composition students to create an original piece right, well anyway I have a friend who transferred here recently who I might have said I would work with but I forgot that I had already agreed to work with Yi Fan”

Jongdae looked at him expectantly and Baekhyun blinked, slightly taken aback at his speed before huffing, knowing what was coming.

“Pleeeeaassseeee” he sniffled pushing out his bottom lip and managing to look as pitiful as he could.

“He is such a good friend of mine and I don’t want to let him down but I don’t want to be rude to Yi Fan, he said that’s he’s already started composing!”

 Jongdae lay his torso over the coffee table and looked up at Baekhyun through his fringe, whimpering before he could look away. He groaned knowing that Jongdae’s overdramatic display would push him over the edge.

“I don’t know anything about him” he tried “for all I know he could be a shitty composer and I will end up failing the paper”

“oh he isn’t” he replied devilishly, seeming to have regained all of his former composer now that Baekhyun was close to agreeing. “He is a family friend of mine from when we were young, he recently transferred here when he got a business scholarship although he is minoring in music composition. He won’t let you down I promise”

“is it Chanyeol?” he said absentmindedly “He and Jongdae had been friends since the first year of high school and it was odd to find out he had friends he didn’t know of, the only one he could think of who he hadn’t met before was Chanyeol, Jongdae nodded enthusiastically.

“so you will do it?!” he begged

“Fine Baekhyun mumbled, “but you’re going to have to keep those coffees coming, also I like the look of those caramel muffins.”

Fifteen minutes later he had a third macchiato, two caramel muffins and a smiling Jongdae.

 

 

 


	2. Whats Your Art?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys here is the second chapter as promised. I hope you enjoy and any comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm kinda new to the whole writing thing so some constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!

Baekhyun made his way home quietly, mentally making a list of everything he had to do. Jongdae, in all his excitement had rushed off to meet Chanyeol and tell him the good news making Baekhyun huff, he wasn’t exactly happy with the arrangement hoping instead to pair up with some quiet senior who he would hopefully never have to see again, but he had to admit, a part of him was kind of excited.

Jongdae had known Chanyeol for years apparently, because their parents were successful business partners they had been sharing a cradle since before they could walk. You would think that in those circumstances that at least a little romantic affection would grow, even if it was just mistaken or misdirected, but Jongdae had assured him countless times that as much as he loved the apparently oversized noodle, he just wasn’t his type, which was fair enough he supposed, he and Jongdae had been friends for years and the thought of being anything more than that with him consequently made him shudder.

Crossing the street, he began to walk through one of the courtyards in his university before reaching the building where he lived. Being on a full scholarship had many perks, including living very close to his lecture halls. Making his way up the stairs he reached his room and slipped his shoes off before closing the door behind him, he just had a few things to grab before he went to work his volunteer shift at the old folk’s home. Eunji had requested last time that he bring a few of his art books full of his drawings of the campus where he studied, “yes I can always look at pictures she admitted. But I want to see things through your eyes”

That was the beauty of art Baekhyun believed. Ever since he was little one of his favorite things do was simply watch. Most kids just laughed at him when he said that he would rather just sit down quietly for a bit instead of play tag, but Baekhyun didn’t mind. Sure, I mean he loved to run, and jump and play on the playground just like all the other kids, but not all the time. Sometimes it was just better to sit, and think, to be able to close your eyes and hear the wind and the leaves around you. Listen not to the voices of his friends but to the collective voice of the world, telling him everything that he couldn’t find in the workbooks his teachers gave him. The feeling that he got when he could open his eyes and look at the world in a completely different way, to see something new was what inspired him to begin to draw. And draw he did. His parents weren’t very impressed when he told then that he wanted to pursue a career in art, but what could they do? Their son was plenty talented and many agencies were rooting for his works already. Yes, Baekhyun thought, this is what I want to do!

He picked up a few of his sketchbooks from his desk and a couple of recently water colored pages from beside the window before shoving them in his satchel and picking up his keys once again. He didn’t want to be late as he had a few more projects to do at home after he finished his volunteer hours. He strode out the door as it began to close slowly behind him.

 

 

Chanyeol had hit a blank, and in all honesty, he didn’t know why. His passion was music, alongside business. With his parents being the wealthy business owners that they were of course their dream was for him to follow in their footsteps, and being the good son that he was, he did, but of course, he didn’t sacrifice his own dream either. His plan was to minor in music composition and complete his degree in that as well so that that he could start a record label when he graduated. He may be slightly underqualified to write songs for any of his artists, but he figured that since it was his label he could do what he wanted. That was the plan anyway. But that wasn’t the problem.

Just arriving back from a year spent touring New Zealand he figured that he would have loads of inspiration, but that was it. He didn’t.

While travelling, he didn’t only get to improve his English and learn some of the native language but he also got to greatly improve his arranging and composing skills with the help of local artists and traditional music. It seemed that the songs just flowed out of him back then and Chanyeol was very proud of the works that he managed to produce, but it seemed that everything he wrote since arriving back in Seoul was just dull in comparison.

It seemed that he was just going through the motions, every day he would get up, go to his classes, study, talk to some friends, then go to bed. Sure, he was greatly improving in his business skills and composition theory, but he didn’t feel inspired.

Wham!!!

Chanyeol jumped, waking up from his musing by a loud Jongdae with a coffee in one hand and a binder in the other. He hoped that the coffee was for him.

“good morning Chanyeol” he grinned cheerily

He smiled back happily, one of the reasons that they got along so well was that they both had endless amounts of energy.

Jongdae sat down, spilling his binder all over the table along with some of the coffee which he then handed over to Chanyeol.

“you better enjoy it” he mumbled, “that’s the fifth one I’ve brought this morning”

“So” Chanyeol began, choosing to ignore his friends strange words. “We need to start working on a piece for our voice composition assessment, I’ve started on a few pieces that would suit your voice but there isn’t anything I’m happy with yet so… “

“Wait!” Jongdae exclaimed, interrupting him “I know I said I would work with you” he began lowering his voice sheepishly, ¨But I kinda already promised Kris that we would work together¨

“Jongdae please you can’t do this!!” he protested “You promised that you would work with me, I don’t know anyone else in the voice department!”

“No wait! I found someone else for you to work with!” he replied hurriedly ¨he’s cool I promise! And he sings like an angel so you guys will definitely get a good mark!”

“what’s his name?” Chanyeol asked a little calmer now knowing that at least he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of finding a new partner.

“Baekhyun, Byun Baekhyun” Jongdae continued

Chanyeol nodded at the familiar name, Jongdae talked about him often but he had never had the chance to meet the guy, at least he would finally get the chance to meet Jongdae’s so called puppy looking best friend. He didn’t believe that he actually looked like a puppy as Jongdae said, that would be weird.

“Well, I have to go and meet up with my actual partner now” Jongdae retorted cheekily “but I will see you later for our movie night, does seven work for you?”

Chanyeol nodded absentmindedly.

“Oh! And, here is baek’s number” he said throwing a piece of paper at him, wiggling his eyebrows creepily before picking up all the scattered papers from his binder and rushing out the door in a mess, his hair blowing disarrayed in the wind.

Chanyeol huffed affectionately at his messy friend before looking down at the piece of paper in his hand with digits scribbled down in scrawled handwriting. CHanyeol didn’t want to know why Jongdae seemingly had the paper ready beforehand as if knowing that Chanyeol would agree. By the way he was wiggling his eyebrows he wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to set him up again. Chanyeol shook his head, it wouldn’t be the first time, although he had to admit, Jongdae wasn’t bad at finding him good match. Due to the fact that they had been friends so long, Jongdae seemed to have a pretty good idea of his ideal type, small stature, eye smiles and cheesy grins, Chanyeol was a sucker for aegyo.

Funnily enough though Chanyeol had never even met this Baekhyun or even seen pictures of what he looked like, you would think that due to them both being friends with Jongdae for so long they would both have met sooner or later, but due to random circumstances they had never been introduced.

Chanyeol shrugged and threw the piece of paper in his bag, forgotten. He would take care of that later, but his new business paper wouldn’t write itself. He threw his empty coffee cup in the bin and walked out the café, a billion things on his mind.

 

 


End file.
